1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of rotary engines and, more particularly, to a rotary internal combustion disk engine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Rotary engines were developed to address certain limitations inherent in conventional piston driven reciprocating engines. Specifically, conventional reciprocating engines utilize a plurality of pistons in combination with a multitude of other moving parts, such as connecting rods, crankshafts, camshafts, and intake and exhaust valves. Moreover, the relationship between these moving parts involves constant friction which causes the parts to wear over time and which causes a certain amount of vibration within the engine, thereby stressing all of the parts within and adjacent to the engine.
Over the years several different rotary engine designs have been developed. For instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,282,258, 3,595,014, 4,127,367, and 4,666,379 disclose various rotary engine designs. Although somewhat useful for their intended purposes, none have proven to be entirely satisfactory. Specifically, these prior art engines involve complex configurations which are difficult and, consequently, expensive to manufacture. Additionally, these prior art rotary engines have been found to be inefficient and, consequently, produce insufficient power.
More recent rotary engine designs utilize internal combustion to improve on the insufficient power and inefficiencies of the early designs. For instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,744,736, 5,400,754 and 5,484,272 disclose rotary internal combustion engines which were developed to address the problems associated with the early rotary engine designs. However, these prior art rotary engines still include some of the problems associated with the earlier designs and also have not proven to be entirely satisfactory.
Accordingly, there is still a need in the art for an efficient rotary internal combustion engine which produces sufficient power and which is based on a fairly simple construction which is reasonably inexpensive to manufacture. The present invention is particularly suited to overcome those problems which remain in the art in a manner not previously known.